The Women's Prize for Fiction turns 20 this year. Author Kate Mosse explains why it's still going strong and how readers can cast their votes in a 'best of the best' competition
Baileys Women's Prize: the judges with the 2015 longlisted books Photo: BWPFF
On a cold winter's night, in early January 1992, a group of women and men - authors, publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers, journalists - gathered in a flat in London to talk about the idea of setting up a new kind of literary prize to celebrate and honour fiction written by women.
The catalyst had been the announcement of the shortlist for the 1991 Booker Prize for Fiction the previous October. Not a single woman on the list, but it wasn't that per se. After all, judges have the right to choose whichever books they most value within the criteria laid out by the Prize. In any case, there'd been two all-male shortlists before. Stuff happens. No, the point was, that nobody seemed to notice until the press started to comment. Lots of journalists, writers, booksellers and publishers imagined the accusations of feminist bias that would’ve been levelled at an all female-list, published without comment. We decided to dig a little deeper. Research all the literary prizes, however big or small.
Look book: the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015 shortlistees Photo: Sarah Wood/Michael LionstarMore
